News of another apparel factory tragedy on February 8, which claimed seven innocent lives, throws into sharp focus how much is still needed to be done in the global apparel industry to ensure the safety of its workers.
"The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists", said Isaac Asimov, the world renowned science fiction novelist and biochemist and, as the apparel industry reels from the news of the tragic fire at a denim manufacturing plant in Ahmedabad, India, I have to ask, when is the global apparel sector going to wake up and say "enough is enough"?
Although this tragic news seems to have escaped widespread international media attention, it comes just a few weeks after much more publicised reports of a fire at a handbag factory in New Delhi, India, that claimed the lives of some 43 workers, broke.
Regardless of the media coverage, regardless of where the product was being made, the international apparel community needs to stand up and stop tragedies like this from happening.
Simple right? Well, apparently not! As a member of the Bangladesh Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry, I believed that the wake-up call for all manufacturers, brands and retailers came nearly seven years ago after the tragic Rana Plaza disaster on April 24, 2013.
After an extensive process of multilateral remediation within the Bangladesh apparel trade, wholesale changes have been made, leaving the industry fit for purpose and ready to continue on its path of economic growth.
Things in Bangladesh are not perfect, but are dramatically better than they were prior to the events of 2013. Having been through the necessary procedures I have to applaud the approach adopted by brands, retailers and the industry as a whole to ensure safer, more ethical, compliant trading practices and to establish the basic principal that if you cannot trade in an ethical, sustainable, compliant manner, then you won't be allowed to trade at all.
Sadly, as the recent news emanating from India would indicate, this is not an approach that has been adopted globally and I believe that the apparel industry is in denial, happy to let things carry on until something, tragically, goes wrong.
But this is not about what has been achieved in Bangladesh—this is about the disease that exists throughout the apparel supply chain—from Delhi to Detroit, from Lahore to Leicester, there are examples that show labour rights abuses and sub-standard working conditions are, sadly, everyday occurrences in the garment industry of today. They need to be eradicated and, unfortunately, it would appear that the wider apparel industry is incapable of making the necessary changes a reality.
Let's not beat around the bush. We are talking about risk to peoples' lives. To my mind, the saving of a few cents here and there on any product does not justify endangering the lives of those that have to make them, largely in lower income sourcing hubs of the globe. Often those involved are the main breadwinners for the family they support. The knock-on effect from calamities of this scale is, put simply, beyond comprehension when it comes to the way it affects ordinary, hard-working humans. This state of affairs is totally unacceptable and things need to change!
The apparel industry is the first to crow about the auditing and sustainable standards that they are maintaining and therein lies the fundamental problem that allows something like the Indian factory fire to take place. Yes, vast improvements have been made across the globe in terms of worker safety, environmental standards and ethical behaviour but, as they say, "a few rotten apples spoil the barrel" and loopholes obviously exist, as is evident from the events of February 8.
There exists a plethora of auditing standards in the apparel industry regarding factory safety and other aspects of production. Whilst these standards should be applauded as they have helped to improve the industry as a whole, they, sadly do not go far enough and often create confusion amongst manufacturers, brands and retailers as to what standards should be adhered to and which offer the highest levels of worker safety.
Saturday's fire at Nandan Denim, which claims to be India's largest and the world's fourth largest integrated denim fabric maker, proves the point. This was not a fly-by-night operation or sweatshop, it was a respected operation trading with brands in Europe and the United States and yet, as has been reported, an early survey of the factory revealed that the facility wasn't adequately equipped with exit doors, and had "no fire safety measures in place." Yet, Nandan Denim was still allowed to operate. How, given the level of compliance audits that are supposedly in place within the apparel sector, is this possible?
I am afraid that the global apparel industry needs to wake up to the fact that it seems incapable of policing itself and I feel that we need a comprehensive set of universal rules that are applied to all manufacturing hubs and are governed by an independent third party in conjunction with representatives from the apparel industry. As the Bangladesh RMG industry experienced over the last seven years, there is a need for a concise set of standards and rules for everyone to understand, regulated by third party bodies.
For this to be achieved on a global scale, I believe the time is right to establish one, strong, credible auditing standard for the worldwide garment production sector. At the moment auditing is too fragmented, with too many players setting too many diverse standards. The apparel industry needs a common language and not one that is determined by the key players in the industry alone.
What is required is one set of criteria that are applied to any apparel manufacturer wherever in the world they may produce. This is going to require work and interaction with partners at the highest local and international government levels together with representatives from the side of the manufacturers and retailers and brands. The process needs to be inclusive and all involved have to agree to a systemised standard that is religiously adhered to.
I do not know which body should monitor this process, but it needs to be one with sufficient gravitas to pull together international governments and trade bodies, together with representatives from the apparel community. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) or the United Nation (UN) spring to mind, but an approach by leading apparel bodies would need to be made to secure their participation.
The global apparel industry can no longer rest in denial. It is no longer acceptable that one set of standards can be applied to one sourcing hub, whilst others flagrantly flaunt their responsibilities and it is no longer acceptable that workers' lives should be put in danger at apparel manufacturing facilities.
The time has come to rid the sector of this behaviour and to re-invent itself in a truly transparent manner—this will only happen with the introduction of stringent legislation and a change in attitude from manufacturers and buyers who now need to be held accountable for the way and with whom they trade. That time is now and there is no more room for excuses.
Mostafiz Uddin is the Managing Director of Denim Expert Limited. He is also the Founder and CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo and Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE). Email: mostafiz@denimexpert.com
